Eat your vegetables! You need three to five servings of vegetables a day! I have been hearing this for as long as I can remember. The problem is…I hate veggies! Ok, I don’t hate all veggies, just most of them. But I do understand the importance of them in our diets, especially since I am now trying to eat healthier and lose weight. So what’s a veggie hater to do?

Over the years, I have found or devised some little tricks to get my daily-recommended allowance without having to make funny faces trying to choke them down.

Probably the easiest way I’ve found to get at least one serving of veggies each day is the good old salad. There are so many things you can do to salads, and so many delicious foods, dressings, and other types of toppings that you can add to them. Unless you absolutely hate every type of vegetable that exists, there’s probably some salad ingredients that you can find palatable…possibly even delicious.

Another easy trick is to add veggies, like lettuce, tomatoes, and onions, to a sandwich or burger. Or even to put extra veggies in your tuna salad, egg salad, potato salad, or whatever other types of summer side salads you like to make.

You might be wondering: What about cooked veggies? Well, that one stumped me for a long time, because I dislike them cooked even more than raw. Though, I can’t stomach carrots either way. So this past year I’ve made it a priority to find ways to eat more cooked veggies, especially with dinner, and yes that includes carrots. UGH!

Fortunately, I like to make a lot of stews, chilies, soups, and pasta dishes during the cooler months. So what I’ve been doing is finding ways to sneak them in. I’ve found that by cutting the vegetables very small (I grate carrots for these recipes) and then putting them in my chili, split pea soup, and black eyed pea soup recipes, then cooking it in the crockpot all day, they basically disappear. You really can’t taste them, and all that’s left is their nutritional value.

When I make a pot of spaghetti or mostaccioli now, I sauté several different vegetables like green peppers, onions, and mushrooms first, before adding in the sauce. This not only helps me to get more veggies in, but it makes it go further because I now have a bigger pot of pasta.

The only problem now is that the weather is warming up, and I’m not making those types of dishes very often. Plus, I recently started the South Beach Diet, which requires eating a lot of healthy vegetables, much more than I was already subsiding on.

Then about a week ago, a good friend taught me a little trick for cooked vegetables that I want to share with all the veggie haters out there: Roast them! Though, before I give you the recipe I must warn you: roasting your vegetables could turn you into a veggie lover. Yes, they’re that delicious!

Bake, stirring every 10 minutes or so for about 20 to 30 minutes until they are a little charred on the edges.

That’s it! You can use all kinds of vegetables with this recipe: Sweet peppers, onions, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, brussel sprouts, carrots, and the list goes on. You can use fresh or frozen vegetables with this recipe.

My favorite so far has been a combination of red peppers, onions, zucchini, broccoli, and cauliflower. The first time I tried this I was floored by how much I really liked it. I even called my mother and told her I now like veggies. And it only took me 52 years.

What are your favorite ways to get your daily allowance of veggies? Do you have any little tricks that you use? If you do, I would love to hear them!

10 Comments

tarMay 07, 2012 @ 04:17:35

You can also hide vegetables from the pickiest of eaters in things like pizza/pasta sauces and casseroles by pureeing them. Puree veggies beforehand in a food processor, or just get an immersion blender/stick blender and blend the finished sauce up. This is especially effective when it comes to kids who will pick out or eat around all the vegetable bits.

Now that you’ve discovered the magic of roasted vegetables, though, you should try this Moroccan stew! The vegetable combo is tasty as-is, but my family added some chicken sausage to it and served it over rice, and it was awesome. Also, there’s just something fun about removing the skins from roasted peppers and tomatoes.

Even though I don’t like veggies, I do like vegetable juice (probably because it tastes more like a tomato juice). But I switched from V8 to an organic one by R.W. Knudsen. Thanks for your comment and tips, Micki!

Take the smallest baby carrots you can find. I mean those tiny, pencil thin ones. Steam them a bit until tender crisp. Add to a saute pan with some butter and maple syrup. Saute until they’re done to your liking.

I swear, I HATE cooked carrots but I love these.

You can also substitute the maple syrup with honey or brown sugar. Brown sugar and Kahlua together in the carrots is even better!Carrie Ann recently posted..EOS Everyday Hand Cream

I’m glad you are enjoying the roasted veggies! I tell you, that’s about the only way I cook them any more. I’d been using sweet white onion in my vegetable mix for roasting, but I think next time I go to the store I’m going to get a red onion and try that. If I’m not mistaken (I haven’t actually looked it up), red onion has fewer carbs than white onion. Sometimes I actually crave my roasted veggie mix! I want to try some different herbs mixed in with it. So far I’ve just been doing salt and pepper.

Thanks for the comment AND the awesome recipe Tabitha! I never thought of red onion…hmmmm, I think I’m going to try that next time too. I also want to play with different herbs and seasonings. This is actually getting to be fun!